Guardian debuts new TV ad

The Guardian launched a new TV ad campaign on Channel 4 last night to an audience of almost one million viewers.

The ‘Three Little Pigs’ advert, a bid to “showcase [The Guardian‘s] ground-breaking open journalism and multi-platform credentials”, was directed by Ringan Ledwidge and is part of a series of TV, cinema, outdoor, press and digital ads.

The TV ad is exclusive to Channel 4 and its associated channels, though The Guardian has also secured a 24 hour “takeover” of the UK YouTube homepage.

It is possible that The Guardian got the media space cost effectively because of its iPad sponsorship deal with C4.

George Patterson Y&R’s Phil McDonald said: “What’s interesting is that a large part of the ad captures behaviour and the power of social media forums before it really gets into The Guardian‘s role.

“It’s an ad that acknowledges behaviour more than it changes behaviour… If it is about making The Guardian relevant in today’s online world, then I think it’s a very powerful step in the right direction. If it is about saying, ‘buy a subscription to The Guardian now’, then I struggle to see the role The Guardian‘s played.”

US media website mediaite.com said the ad “brilliantly reimagines” the fable, although “the link between the pigs’ insurance fraud and the faux-Occupy movement in the ad appears somewhat tenuous, since the murder of Big Bad Wolf is far more of a newsy O.J. Simpson-esque killing than the Housing Crisis”.